Female Founders to Watch: Seattle Edition

Founder Friday is coming to Seattle to mix and mingle with the city’s amazing female tech talent. Here are a few women to watch.

By Jessica Stillman (Editor, Women 2.0)

Seattle may be best known to outsiders for Starbucks, 90s grunge or sudsy TV doctor dramas, but the home of Microsoft and Amazon also has a lively startup scene, including its fair share of female founders doing amazing things.

Which is, of course, a large part of the reason that Women 2.0 is thrilled that Founder Friday is coming to the city.Here’s a sampling of the lady technologists in the area that are worth watching:

Dana Dyksterhuis (Co-founder, Fanzo)
Fanzo, which ranks sports fans based on their social media activity, was one of 10 apps out of 600 that applied to be accepted to Microsoft’s Accelerator, which is in partnership with TechStars. Follow Dyksterhuis on Twitter @danad103.

Christina Lomasney (CEO & Co-founder, Modumetal)
Nanolaminated metal and coatings may not be a terribly well known niche, but Modumetal is leading in this corner of the tech world, recently securing additional funding from partners in the oil and gas industry to continue developing super durable materials.

Nadia Eleza Khawaja (Co-founder & CEO, Jolkana)
Social enterprise Jolkana is an online platform to help people make philanthropic donations and track their impact. It has recently won local plaudits as one of Seattle’s best non-profits. Follow her on Twitter @NadiaMahmud.

Kate Matsudaira (Founder & CTO, Pop Forms)Hacker Kate Matsudaira is a veteran of the Seattle start-up scene where she’s served as VP of engineering at Decide, SEOmoz and Delve Networks. Her latest venture is soon-to-launch startup Pop Forms. Follow her on Twitter at @katmats.

Kelsye Nelson (Co-founder & CEO, Writer.ly)
Described by GeekWire as “the Elance of publishing” early-stage startup Writer.ly helps writers connect with service providers like copy editors and book designers, as well as freelance gigs. Follow her on Twitter @Kelsye.

Swatee Surve (Founder & CEO, Litesprite)Litesprite, a healthcare startup that combines games with proven medical treatments to help people develop and maintain healthy habits, was recently selected as finalist in a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Developer Challenge.

Women 2.0 readers in Seattle: Who have we missed?

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer with interests in unconventional career paths, generational differences, and the future of work. She writes a daily column for Inc.com and has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch, GigaOM, and Brazen Careerist, among others. Follow her on Twitter at @entrylevelrebel.